The Holy Trinity Academy girl’s rugby team won Okotoks bragging rights, but they ended up losing the Big Sky High School Rugby Union title to their rivals to the south.
The Knights downed the Foothills Composite Falcons 38-24 May 18 at Holy Trinity Academy in the semi-final to not only win bragging rights, but also earn a berth in the league final.
However, they weren’t able to keep the momentum going when the Highwood Mustangs downed the Knights 25-5 in High River on May 19 in a rainstorm.
“I felt pretty bad for the (HTA) girls, I think it might have been a different story if the girls hadn’t played the night before,” Knights assistant coach Jordan Smith said. “Highwood was just able to wear us down.”
The Knights opened the scoring when Melissa Bass punched in a try from about 20 yards out. She was able to make the convert to make it 7-0.
The Mustangs tied the game before the end of the first half when speedy Cassie Monk chased down a Highwood punt and tossed the ball to the fleet-footed Teal Knox for a 60-yard try.
The Mustangs got their kicks in the game. They were able to control the game by kicking and chasing the ball with the wind at their back in the second half.
“They kicked the ball a lot,” said the Knights’ Ally Hickey. “They did a lot of chip-and-chase and we were having troubles making our tackles.”
The chip-and-chase means the Mustangs would kick the ball when it was on the ground, and they Highwood players would give chase.
Mustangs coach Bill Young heard the complaints they were playing soccer not rugby, but a high school league championship will help him get over it.
“HTA is a solid defensive team and they were bottling us in,” Young said. “So we started to chip-and-chase. It’s hard to bottle in our players like Cassie Monk, Elidh Ritchie and Knox when we chip and chase… When we get in trouble, we are going to stark kicking more.”
The Mustangs were able to win the field position game in the second half and scored four consecutive tries for the victory. Katie Siewart had two tries while Shaylene Riehs and Ritchie had one each.
The Knights advanced to the finals by beating the Foothills Falcons 38-24 at HTA May 18.
“We were down 10-5 at halftime,” Smith said. “In the first half, Foothills was able to get their passes off before we got them to the ground. We were able to make our tackles quicker in the second half and control the ball.”
Knights head coach Kirby Ritter said the Knights were able to utilize their strengths in the second half.
“Our strengths is our pace and our forwards,” Ritter said.
Knight Angelica Nori said they were “dragging in the first half.”
“We were able to pick it up in the second half. Mr. Smith told us to play with more aggression.”
Falcons Brooke de Waal said the Knights started deking the Foothills out in the second half.
Including herself.
“I missed a lot of tackles,” she said.
The Holy Trinity Knights will play in the South Central Zone tournament starting May 26 at the Calgary Rugby Union.
